Of SCEPTRES, and URN. 
^ceptres , or enfigns of royalty, borne in the hand on folemn occafions, have 
a Ut h e . en ’ the earlieft ages to which hiftory extends, the badges of higheft 
a ]j an ^ power. The mod ancient figures which are preferved of Sceptres, 
fe nt C f r ^ orne general refemblance to a reed and a flower ; being the varied repre- 
0|, t L tl0n a l° n g ftalk, branched and bloffoming at the top : this general idea, 
de-ft* ^ OIU * nent > i° the age of Charlemagne, fettled into the figure of the Fleur- 
tino-Jf, 30 ^ * n that form has remained an elegant ornament, and conftitutes a dif- 
toUl ted part of the imperial infignia of more than on t European kingdom. 
fiip r J S not neceflfary to trace from whence the original idea of this enfign of 
that tl^ 6 ^° Wer was derived; it is fufficient for the purpofe of the prefent ftri&ure, 
le above, from time immemorial, was the chofen emblem of Royal dignity. 
Bn 
th e j- 1 ” tW ° Sceptres feem early to have been appropriated to every one who wore 
acJ ‘crn j the one, the enfign of power ; the other, of juftice and mercy. 
. Cu ^ ornar y> particularly in the fifteenth and fixteenth centuries, both in 
th e c r * ta * n and on the Continent, on the deceafe of a royal perfonage, to place 
tr >Qn ar ° Wn an< ^ Sceptres at the head of the bed of ftate ; and after the body of the 
Vf Cre C ^* Wa s removed, thefe trophies remained for fome time on the pillow, or 
p Crfo ,P lac «l in other confpicuous fituations, when the funeral obfequies were 
the *• Often the Sceptres, in thefe cafes, were placed through the circle of 
e, hbl * ara ’ anc ^ t ^ lis to fpcftators conftituted a feparate and linking ornament, 
apical °r fovereignty and grandeur: as fuch it was fculptured on inonu- 
fent ;a .; > an< ^ ^gured as an appendage to portraits or drawings, defigned for repre- 
ttiorj ’° nS of r °yal faints, or frequently characterized their rank, and became me- 
<11 thcm > without any other figure but initials of their name fubjoined. 
tcliaj^ e ^ e e rinblems adorned maufoleums and tombs, were painted on windows of 
fac re( j lS Joules, and embellifhed books of devotion. On the introduction of thefe 
*tiO|.y >0 ^ u, mes into Caledonia, artifts embelliflied their carved monuments, in me- 
er >fio n Aril great patrons of Chnftianity, with imitations of thefe fplendid 
be en d atl d as fuch they are figured on feveral obelifks (of which fpecimcns have 
given • - ° 
111 this work) as at A and B in the annexed plate 
OF 
. Ve n ' 7 , iy °hferve that the Crown and Sceptres were difpofed in this manner, at the funeral obfequies 
H;,, ' 0 '’ in w 'Ji>*inJhr Abbey , anno 1695, of which a reprefentation is given m Sanford's Genea- 
“ e Plat es 7 y ’ P 3 ge 721. The refemblance to thofe under confideration is perhaps Hill more explicit in 
• CS bf sk. r . n.r ./» A....! _ r 
b 
le en 
-r , J X lie 1C1CU1 UicUiCC IU UlCIJC U ilVAv. a - I t 
** ; ” ; he funeral obfequies of Ann of Bretagne, CCV. and CCVI. in Montfaueon' s Antiquities of 
de hvcd fCCm fuffi ciently to authenticate the force from whence the embellifhments alluded to have 
The 
